WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 Welcome back to the show. It is fantastic to 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.040 have you with us for another deep dive. Yeah, 00:00:05.179 --> 00:00:06.799 really glad you could join us today. Because 00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:10.640 today, we are looking at a scenario that, well, 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:13.480 it almost defies belief. And I really want you 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:15.160 to put yourself in this headspace for a minute. 00:00:15.539 --> 00:00:18.500 Right. Imagine a major military offensive where 00:00:18.550 --> 00:00:21.589 Absolutely no ground is gained. Like zero tactical 00:00:21.589 --> 00:00:24.370 advantage. A complete unmitigated failure on 00:00:24.370 --> 00:00:26.769 the battlefield. Exactly. A total failure. And 00:00:26.769 --> 00:00:30.269 yet somehow this localized disaster manages to 00:00:30.269 --> 00:00:33.609 send shockwaves across the English Channel and 00:00:33.609 --> 00:00:36.450 literally shake the very foundations of the British 00:00:36.450 --> 00:00:39.090 government back home. Yeah, it's wild. How does 00:00:39.090 --> 00:00:41.689 a muddy field in France bring down politicians 00:00:41.689 --> 00:00:44.350 in London, right? Right. It is one of those cascading 00:00:44.350 --> 00:00:47.369 chain reactions in history that you can you can 00:00:47.369 --> 00:00:49.590 hardly believe actually happened. It really is 00:00:49.590 --> 00:00:53.250 a local tactical failure that just snowballs 00:00:53.250 --> 00:00:55.649 into a full -blown national political crisis. 00:00:55.969 --> 00:00:58.429 So our mission for you today is to unpack exactly 00:00:58.429 --> 00:01:00.710 how that happened by looking at the Battle of 00:01:00.710 --> 00:01:02.590 Auburs, which is also known as the Battle of 00:01:02.590 --> 00:01:05.269 Auburs Ridge. Yeah. This was an infamous British 00:01:05.269 --> 00:01:07.629 offensive on the Western Front during World War 00:01:07.629 --> 00:01:12.430 I, taking place on May 9th, 1915. And our source 00:01:12.430 --> 00:01:15.609 material for this deep dive is a really comprehensive 00:01:15.609 --> 00:01:17.989 Wikipedia article. Covers everything. It does. 00:01:18.530 --> 00:01:21.689 It details the battle, the prelude, the specifics. 00:01:21.549 --> 00:01:24.689 military tactics used by both sides, and of course, 00:01:24.890 --> 00:01:27.310 that monumental aftermath we just teased. To 00:01:27.310 --> 00:01:29.450 really understand the sheer scale of what went 00:01:29.450 --> 00:01:32.769 wrong here, we first have to set the stage. Because 00:01:32.769 --> 00:01:35.269 this battle, it didn't just happen in a vacuum. 00:01:35.469 --> 00:01:37.670 No, it was part of something much bigger. Exactly. 00:01:38.049 --> 00:01:40.310 It was the initial British contribution to a 00:01:40.310 --> 00:01:43.750 much larger combined Franco -British offensive 00:01:43.750 --> 00:01:46.430 known as the Second Battle of Artois. Right. 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:48.819 The French commander in chief at the time, Joseph 00:01:48.819 --> 00:01:51.560 Joffrey, was planning this massive push. He had 00:01:51.560 --> 00:01:53.799 the French 10th Army tasked with attacking the 00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:56.379 German 6th Army north of Eris. And their immediate 00:01:56.379 --> 00:01:58.620 goal was to capture the heights at Notre Dame 00:01:58.620 --> 00:02:01.420 de Lorette and Vimy Ridge. Yes. But Joffrey needed 00:02:01.420 --> 00:02:04.019 help to actually pull this off. Right. He essentially 00:02:04.019 --> 00:02:06.700 goes to Sir John French, who is the commander 00:02:06.700 --> 00:02:10.139 of the British Expeditionary Force, and asks 00:02:10.139 --> 00:02:13.000 if the British can support this massive French 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:15.710 offensive. basically trying to widen the gap 00:02:15.710 --> 00:02:18.229 in the German defenses. Yeah. And French agrees. 00:02:19.289 --> 00:02:21.490 The British First Army was positioned further 00:02:21.490 --> 00:02:24.370 north along the line, so they decided to launch 00:02:24.370 --> 00:02:26.550 their supporting attack in the southern half 00:02:26.550 --> 00:02:29.110 of their front. Near a village called Leventi. 00:02:29.469 --> 00:02:31.849 Exactly. Yeah. And the ultimate prize they were 00:02:31.849 --> 00:02:34.169 eyeing for this specific operation was Auburs 00:02:34.169 --> 00:02:37.509 Ridge. Which honestly, calling it a ridge might 00:02:37.509 --> 00:02:39.789 give you the wrong impression. Yeah, it definitely 00:02:39.789 --> 00:02:42.439 sounds grander than it is. Right. If you're picturing 00:02:42.439 --> 00:02:44.960 steep cliffs or rocky drop -offs, forget it. 00:02:45.219 --> 00:02:47.419 We're talking about an area just two to three 00:02:47.419 --> 00:02:49.360 kilometers away from the British lines that was 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:51.219 only slightly elevated above the surrounding 00:02:51.219 --> 00:02:53.840 landscape. I mean, in any normal context, it 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:56.419 is barely even a hill. Yeah. But you have to 00:02:56.419 --> 00:02:58.960 picture the terrain in this specific part of 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:01.860 France. It was incredibly flat and notoriously 00:03:01.860 --> 00:03:04.740 poorly drained. Basically a swamp. It is essentially 00:03:04.740 --> 00:03:08.879 a miserable waterlogged expanse of mud. So in 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:11.659 an environment like that, even a slight elevation 00:03:11.659 --> 00:03:14.639 gives you a massive tactical advantage. For artillery 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:16.800 observation, just keeping your own troops dry. 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:19.360 Right, precisely. And that slight elevation, 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:22.400 Auburs Ridge, contained the villages of Auburs, 00:03:22.759 --> 00:03:25.580 Fromelle, and Lemaisnil. And what makes this 00:03:25.580 --> 00:03:27.740 upcoming battle even more grim to think about 00:03:27.740 --> 00:03:29.719 is that the British had just fought over this 00:03:29.719 --> 00:03:32.300 exact same area two months prior. Right, during 00:03:32.300 --> 00:03:34.580 the Battle of Neufchappel. Yeah. They knew the 00:03:34.580 --> 00:03:37.110 mud. They knew the misery. And that Previous 00:03:37.110 --> 00:03:39.810 battle is the key to everything that follows. 00:03:40.050 --> 00:03:42.930 It dictated exactly how the Germans prepared 00:03:42.930 --> 00:03:45.689 for this new attack. Right. But before we get 00:03:45.689 --> 00:03:47.849 to the German defenses, we really should look 00:03:47.849 --> 00:03:50.289 at the British battle plan because they brought 00:03:50.289 --> 00:03:53.569 some incredibly modern multi -domain tactics 00:03:53.569 --> 00:03:56.289 to the table for robbers. They really did. Which 00:03:56.289 --> 00:03:58.389 brings us to the subterranean warfare. Yeah, 00:03:58.389 --> 00:04:00.830 this is fascinating. The British deployed the 00:04:00.830 --> 00:04:04.439 173rd Tunneling Company. And the source notes 00:04:04.439 --> 00:04:06.780 this was only the second time specialist royal 00:04:06.780 --> 00:04:08.740 engineer tunneling companies were used in this 00:04:08.740 --> 00:04:11.419 specific way. They literally tunneled right under 00:04:11.419 --> 00:04:13.840 no man's land, you know, that deadly stretch 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:15.960 of empty ground between the two opposing armies. 00:04:16.220 --> 00:04:19.240 Right. They planted explosive mines directly 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:21.759 beneath the German defenses, and these mines 00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:24.779 were set to be blown at zero hour. The exact 00:04:24.779 --> 00:04:27.620 moment the infantry attack began. Exactly. I 00:04:27.620 --> 00:04:30.259 mean, imagine the claustrophobia and the sheer 00:04:30.259 --> 00:04:33.459 nerve it takes to dig silently underground. In 00:04:33.459 --> 00:04:36.300 the freezing mud, knowing the enemy is right 00:04:36.300 --> 00:04:39.120 above your head. It's terrifying. It really is. 00:04:39.540 --> 00:04:41.319 And while those engineers were working in the 00:04:41.319 --> 00:04:43.660 dark below the earth, the British were also taking 00:04:43.660 --> 00:04:46.000 to the sky above. Right, the air support. Yeah, 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:48.160 air support was a huge component of this plan. 00:04:48.279 --> 00:04:51.000 It's so easy to forget how new aviation was in 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:54.819 early 1915. But they were deeply involved. Three 00:04:54.819 --> 00:04:57.259 squadrons of the first Wing Royal Flying Corps 00:04:57.259 --> 00:04:59.720 were attached to the first army for this operation. 00:05:00.019 --> 00:05:01.860 And they were busy before the battle even started. 00:05:01.959 --> 00:05:04.459 Yeah. For four straight days leading up to the 00:05:04.459 --> 00:05:07.939 attack, these squadrons flew continuous defensive 00:05:07.939 --> 00:05:10.180 patrols. Just acting as a shield in the sky. 00:05:10.420 --> 00:05:13.899 Right. Their entire job was to deter enemy reconnaissance 00:05:13.899 --> 00:05:16.720 planes from seeing the troop buildups. Then during 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:19.110 the battle itself, their mission shifted. They 00:05:19.110 --> 00:05:21.910 were tasked with artillery observation. Literally 00:05:21.910 --> 00:05:24.410 spotting where the shells were landing and signaling 00:05:24.410 --> 00:05:27.610 back. Exactly. Yeah. As well as bombing German 00:05:27.610 --> 00:05:30.790 rear areas, railway junctions, and bridges further 00:05:30.790 --> 00:05:33.529 afield. They were actively trying to blind the 00:05:33.529 --> 00:05:36.029 German command and choke off their supply lines. 00:05:36.250 --> 00:05:39.149 So on paper, it is a brilliant concept. You've 00:05:39.149 --> 00:05:42.050 got tunnels detonating below, airplanes bombing 00:05:42.050 --> 00:05:44.350 above, and infantry charging the middle. It sounds 00:05:44.350 --> 00:05:47.800 unstoppable. OK, let's unpack this. Because despite 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:50.100 all of that innovative planning, the Germans 00:05:50.100 --> 00:05:52.000 were not just sitting around waiting to be attacked. 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:54.180 Garf on it. They had spent the last two months 00:05:54.180 --> 00:05:56.699 turning the earth itself into a meat grinder. 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:00.079 Yeah. The lessons of that previous battle at 00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:03.560 Neuf -Chapelle completely shifted German military 00:06:03.560 --> 00:06:05.519 doctrine in this sector. Right. They learned 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:08.579 a very hard lesson two months earlier. They realized 00:06:08.579 --> 00:06:11.420 a single line of breastworks was nowhere near 00:06:11.420 --> 00:06:14.019 enough to stop a determined attack. Let's pause 00:06:14.019 --> 00:06:16.240 and define that for a second, because breastworks 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:18.379 is a term that gets thrown around a lot in World 00:06:18.379 --> 00:06:21.360 War I history. It does. Why build a breastwork 00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:23.500 instead of digging a trench? It goes back to 00:06:23.500 --> 00:06:26.160 that poorly drained terrain we mentioned. If 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:28.779 you try to dig a traditional trench in Laventie, 00:06:29.160 --> 00:06:32.160 you hit the water table almost immediately. Right, 00:06:32.259 --> 00:06:34.519 you're essentially digging a canal. Exactly. 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:37.699 And your soldiers will drown or freeze in the 00:06:37.699 --> 00:06:40.439 water. So instead of digging down into the earth, 00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:42.680 you have to build walls up above the ground. 00:06:43.079 --> 00:06:46.019 Using sandbags, timber, earth, that kind of thing. 00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:48.420 Right. Those built up walls are breastworks. 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:50.740 And the Germans realized their old breastworks 00:06:50.740 --> 00:06:54.079 were too flimsy. Yeah. This is a terrifying aha 00:06:54.079 --> 00:06:56.980 moment for anyone studying military adaptation. 00:06:57.560 --> 00:07:00.279 They didn't just rebuild the walls, they engineered 00:07:00.279 --> 00:07:04.060 an impenetrable fortress. Absolutely. To start, 00:07:04.439 --> 00:07:06.560 the barbed wire entanglements sitting out in 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:09.240 no man's land weren't just repaired. The wire 00:07:09.240 --> 00:07:12.399 was doubled, and in some places, trebled. And 00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:14.259 as for the breastworks themselves, the old ones 00:07:14.259 --> 00:07:16.579 used to be about five feet deep. The Germans 00:07:16.579 --> 00:07:20.339 expanded them to a massive 15 to 20 feet broad. 00:07:20.509 --> 00:07:23.870 We are talking about muddy walls as thick as 00:07:23.870 --> 00:07:26.509 a house. They also added something called a piratos. 00:07:27.069 --> 00:07:29.750 What's that? It's a thick bank of earth built 00:07:29.750 --> 00:07:32.389 up behind the trench line. That protects the 00:07:32.389 --> 00:07:34.329 soldiers from the shrapnel of shells exploding 00:07:34.329 --> 00:07:37.310 to their rear. But the machine gun placement 00:07:37.310 --> 00:07:39.769 is the detail that absolutely chills me. Oh, 00:07:39.810 --> 00:07:41.709 yeah. Rather than just pointing them forward 00:07:41.709 --> 00:07:43.870 to shoot at the charting British, the source 00:07:43.870 --> 00:07:46.550 details how each battalion had two machine guns 00:07:46.550 --> 00:07:49.529 and placed right at ground level. Yes. Explicitly 00:07:49.529 --> 00:07:52.470 set to sweep no man's land from the flanks. Wait, 00:07:52.490 --> 00:07:54.689 so if you're a British soldier charging forward, 00:07:55.069 --> 00:07:57.430 the fire isn't just coming at your face. It's 00:07:57.430 --> 00:08:00.149 crossing your path from the sides. Exactly. It 00:08:00.149 --> 00:08:02.519 creates an interlocking field of crossfire. There 00:08:02.519 --> 00:08:04.879 is literally no way to hide. If you drop to the 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:06.759 ground, the bullets are skimming just above the 00:08:06.759 --> 00:08:08.959 mud. And that nightmare was just their first 00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:11.800 line of defense. Right. Moving about 200 yards 00:08:11.800 --> 00:08:15.259 behind that massive front breast work, the Germans 00:08:15.259 --> 00:08:18.420 built a completely new structure called the Vongraben. 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:21.279 Which translates to a living trench, essentially. 00:08:21.899 --> 00:08:24.120 Exactly that. This wasn't a fighting position. 00:08:24.300 --> 00:08:27.910 It was a survival bunker. It featured deep dugouts 00:08:27.910 --> 00:08:30.730 underneath the earth that could comfortably accommodate 00:08:30.730 --> 00:08:34.509 20 to 30 men each. Wow. And the von Grauben was 00:08:34.509 --> 00:08:37.590 connected to the front line by solidly built 00:08:37.590 --> 00:08:40.370 communication trenches that were fully equipped 00:08:40.370 --> 00:08:43.590 with concrete shelters. So the front line changed 00:08:43.590 --> 00:08:45.389 completely. Right. Because of this, the front 00:08:45.389 --> 00:08:46.990 line essentially became nothing more than a line 00:08:46.990 --> 00:08:50.429 of sentry posts. The main garrison lived safely 00:08:50.429 --> 00:08:53.169 200 yards back in the von Grauben, completely 00:08:53.169 --> 00:08:55.509 shielded from the initial bombardment. ready 00:08:55.509 --> 00:08:58.110 to rush forward through those concrete communication 00:08:58.110 --> 00:09:00.809 trenches the moment an attack started. Exactly. 00:09:00.990 --> 00:09:03.590 So even if the British somehow survived the double 00:09:03.590 --> 00:09:06.490 barbed wire, the flanking machine guns, and managed 00:09:06.490 --> 00:09:09.250 to climb over a 20 -foot broad wall of earth, 00:09:09.509 --> 00:09:11.710 they would immediately hit a fully rested, heavily 00:09:11.710 --> 00:09:14.529 protected second wave of infantry pouring out 00:09:14.529 --> 00:09:16.330 of the communication trenches. Unbelievable. 00:09:16.509 --> 00:09:18.690 And it gets even deeper than that. About 700 00:09:18.690 --> 00:09:20.769 to a thousand yards back from the front line, 00:09:21.190 --> 00:09:24.090 the Germans constructed the Stutzpunklinie. Hold 00:09:24.090 --> 00:09:26.169 on, how far back are we talking now? Because 00:09:26.169 --> 00:09:28.009 it sounds like they are building an entire underground 00:09:28.009 --> 00:09:30.570 city out there. Over half a mile behind the front 00:09:30.570 --> 00:09:34.210 lines. The Stutzpunklinie was a line of dedicated 00:09:34.210 --> 00:09:37.350 reinforced concrete machine gun posts spaced 00:09:37.350 --> 00:09:41.070 out evenly about a thousand yards apart at strategic 00:09:41.070 --> 00:09:44.519 locations. Wait. The text specifically names 00:09:44.519 --> 00:09:47.940 places like La Terelle, Ferme du Bois, and Ferme 00:09:47.940 --> 00:09:51.279 Cours d 'Evoi. These were designed as absolute 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:54.019 rallying points. So a fallback position. Yes. 00:09:54.519 --> 00:09:56.879 If the British managed to overrun the front lines 00:09:56.879 --> 00:10:00.009 and the Vongraben, the surviving German infantry 00:10:00.009 --> 00:10:02.389 would fall back to these concrete bunkers and 00:10:02.389 --> 00:10:04.370 hold the line. Effectively trapping the British 00:10:04.370 --> 00:10:08.049 in a new deeper crossfire. Exactly. It is defense 00:10:08.049 --> 00:10:10.450 in depth taken to its absolute extreme. And we 00:10:10.450 --> 00:10:12.070 haven't even mentioned the German artillery yet. 00:10:12.309 --> 00:10:14.750 Right. The German command placed most of their 00:10:14.750 --> 00:10:16.990 field artillery. These are batteries of four 00:10:16.990 --> 00:10:19.889 guns each alongside heavier artillery batteries 00:10:19.889 --> 00:10:22.870 between 2 ,500 and 4 ,000 yards back. Sitting 00:10:22.870 --> 00:10:25.509 securely up on Auburs Ridge itself. And just 00:10:25.509 --> 00:10:27.690 to show you how thoroughly they planned for worst 00:10:27.690 --> 00:10:30.190 -case scenarios, the Germans had already built 00:10:30.190 --> 00:10:32.690 a second line of gun positions even further back 00:10:32.690 --> 00:10:35.649 than that. Wow. If the British miraculously broke 00:10:35.649 --> 00:10:38.090 through the bunkers, the German artillery could 00:10:38.090 --> 00:10:41.070 simply hitch up their guns, retreat to pre -dug 00:10:41.070 --> 00:10:43.850 positions, and immediately start supporting a 00:10:43.850 --> 00:10:46.789 counterattack. And every single German battalion 00:10:46.789 --> 00:10:49.929 frontage, which was held by about 280 men, had 00:10:49.929 --> 00:10:53.149 support companies waiting 2 ,000 yards back and 00:10:53.149 --> 00:10:55.909 reserve companies another 2 ,000 to 4 ,000 yards 00:10:55.909 --> 00:10:58.710 behind them. The strategic depth meant the British 00:10:58.710 --> 00:11:00.570 were essentially attacking a brick wall with 00:11:00.570 --> 00:11:03.340 a hammer. But behind that brick wall were five 00:11:03.340 --> 00:11:05.860 more brick walls, each thicker than the last. 00:11:06.159 --> 00:11:08.240 Here's where it gets really interesting and frankly 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:11.259 incredibly tragic. Because against this absolute 00:11:11.259 --> 00:11:14.080 master class in defensive engineering, the British 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:16.879 attack completely utterly fell apart. The source 00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:19.480 material refers to it as an unmitigated disaster. 00:11:20.179 --> 00:11:22.720 And the failures were entirely systemic. It wasn't 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:25.500 just one lucky break for the Germans. No, it 00:11:25.500 --> 00:11:27.700 wasn't one unlucky break for the British either. 00:11:27.879 --> 00:11:31.240 It was a cascading failure of intelligence, logistics, 00:11:31.580 --> 00:11:35.139 and firepower all overlapping at once. Let's 00:11:35.139 --> 00:11:37.620 start with the intelligence failure. How could 00:11:37.620 --> 00:11:40.299 the British not know about these defenses? That's 00:11:40.299 --> 00:11:42.820 the big question. The records show they either 00:11:42.820 --> 00:11:44.980 didn't have the reconnaissance information about 00:11:44.980 --> 00:11:47.860 these massive concrete reinforced German upgrades, 00:11:48.500 --> 00:11:51.440 Or they had the intel sitting on a desk somewhere 00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:53.340 and simply didn't give it enough weight. Yeah. 00:11:53.720 --> 00:11:55.779 They were ordering tens of thousands of men to 00:11:55.779 --> 00:11:57.940 attack a fortress they seemingly didn't know 00:11:57.940 --> 00:12:00.539 existed. And because they lacked that intelligence, 00:12:01.179 --> 00:12:03.980 they lost the element of surprise entirely. Right. 00:12:04.179 --> 00:12:06.480 The opening bombardment, the massive artillery 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:08.559 barrage that is supposed to blow apart the barbed 00:12:08.559 --> 00:12:10.919 wire and smash the breastworks so the infantry 00:12:10.919 --> 00:12:14.220 can actually run across. No man's land. It failed 00:12:14.220 --> 00:12:16.500 on almost every level. It just wasn't enough. 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:18.840 Nowhere near powerful enough to break the troubled 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:22.059 wire. It barely scratched the 20 foot broad breastworks. 00:12:22.580 --> 00:12:24.940 And crucially, it completely failed to knock 00:12:24.940 --> 00:12:27.480 out those flanking machine guns and placed at 00:12:27.480 --> 00:12:30.220 ground level. And the logistics behind the British 00:12:30.220 --> 00:12:33.460 lines were just as disastrous. The trench layout 00:12:33.460 --> 00:12:36.600 and the traffic flow systems were so poorly organized 00:12:36.600 --> 00:12:39.100 that when the attack started and things immediately 00:12:39.100 --> 00:12:42.759 went wrong, it caused a catastrophic A total 00:12:42.759 --> 00:12:45.980 gridlock. Yes. They couldn't efficiently move 00:12:45.980 --> 00:12:48.860 fresh reinforcements forward through the narrow 00:12:48.860 --> 00:12:52.779 communication trenches. And even more devastatingly, 00:12:53.059 --> 00:12:55.799 they couldn't evacuate the massive influx of 00:12:55.799 --> 00:12:58.399 casualties backward. It was essentially a traffic 00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:01.070 jam of human suffering. What really sealed their 00:13:01.070 --> 00:13:03.850 fate, however, was a severe and fatal problem 00:13:03.850 --> 00:13:06.549 with their ammunition. This is a huge factor. 00:13:06.970 --> 00:13:08.830 The British artillery was in terrible condition. 00:13:09.090 --> 00:13:11.610 The guns themselves were heavily overused. Right. 00:13:11.789 --> 00:13:13.690 When an artillery barrel gets worn down from 00:13:13.690 --> 00:13:16.269 firing too many shells, it loses its rifling 00:13:16.269 --> 00:13:18.669 and becomes wildly inaccurate. It just sprays 00:13:18.669 --> 00:13:21.070 everywhere. Exactly. And to make matters worse, 00:13:21.210 --> 00:13:23.370 it wasn't just the gun barrels causing issues. 00:13:23.750 --> 00:13:26.309 The ammunition itself was failing due to poor, 00:13:26.590 --> 00:13:29.000 rushed manufacturing back in the factories. So 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:31.440 you have worn -out guns firing defective shells 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:33.440 at fortifications that are four times thicker 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:35.679 than you thought they were. It is a recipe for 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:38.179 a massacre. And as soon as the infantry charged, 00:13:38.539 --> 00:13:41.000 the battlefield quickly dissolved into thick 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:44.320 smoke, mud, and total chaos. Yeah. It became 00:13:44.320 --> 00:13:46.440 impossible for the artillery spotters to tell 00:13:46.440 --> 00:13:48.899 where the British troops even were. Accurate 00:13:48.899 --> 00:13:51.580 artillery support became a physical impossibility. 00:13:51.759 --> 00:13:54.039 Because if the British gunners fired, they were 00:13:54.039 --> 00:13:56.159 just as likely to drop those defective shells 00:13:56.159 --> 00:13:58.299 on their own men who were pinned down in the 00:13:58.090 --> 00:14:00.590 mud of No Man's Land. The result of all these 00:14:00.590 --> 00:14:03.450 compounding systemic failures is a disparity 00:14:03.450 --> 00:14:05.929 in casualties that is just staggering to read. 00:14:06.070 --> 00:14:08.409 It really is. We are talking about a 10 to 1 00:14:08.409 --> 00:14:12.250 casualty ratio. On May 9 alone, the British official 00:14:12.250 --> 00:14:17.049 historian James Edmonds recorded 11 ,619 British 00:14:17.049 --> 00:14:20.370 casualties. Hope for 11 ,000. Over 11 ,000 men 00:14:20.370 --> 00:14:22.950 killed, wounded, or missing in a matter of hours. 00:14:23.309 --> 00:14:25.409 And looking at the other side of No Man's Land, 00:14:25.629 --> 00:14:28.190 The German regiments defending that specific 00:14:28.190 --> 00:14:31.809 sector, infantry regiments 55 and 57, recorded 00:14:31.809 --> 00:14:35.549 roughly 900 casualties total. 11 ,000 to 900, 00:14:35.690 --> 00:14:38.409 it is a slaughter. But within that horrifying 00:14:38.409 --> 00:14:41.370 statistic, the source material gives us these 00:14:41.370 --> 00:14:45.250 profound, deeply human flashes of individual 00:14:45.250 --> 00:14:47.980 heroism. Those moments really stand out. There 00:14:47.980 --> 00:14:50.899 is this incredibly vivid detail of the Royal 00:14:50.899 --> 00:14:54.159 Munster Fusiliers. Right before the battle, perhaps 00:14:54.159 --> 00:14:55.940 knowing the absolute hell they were about to 00:14:55.940 --> 00:14:59.240 walk into, the entire battalion received absolution 00:14:59.240 --> 00:15:01.460 from their chaplain, Father Francis Gleason. 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:04.299 Wow. You can just picture that scene. Hundreds 00:15:04.299 --> 00:15:06.539 of men kneeling in the muddy, claustrophobic 00:15:06.539 --> 00:15:09.220 trenches, the quiet tension in the air before 00:15:09.220 --> 00:15:11.519 the whistles blow. The psychological weight those 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:14.460 men were carrying is unimaginable. They had to 00:15:14.460 --> 00:15:17.210 know, looking at the wire and the defenses, the 00:15:17.210 --> 00:15:19.289 odds were entirely against them. And despite 00:15:19.289 --> 00:15:21.429 the tactical failure of the overarching plan, 00:15:21.659 --> 00:15:24.620 The individual bravery shown that day was astounding. 00:15:25.259 --> 00:15:27.700 The source lists four specific men who earned 00:15:27.700 --> 00:15:30.379 the Victoria Cross. Which is the absolute highest 00:15:30.379 --> 00:15:32.320 award for gallantry in the British Armed Forces. 00:15:32.539 --> 00:15:34.899 Yes. Four men earned it on that single day at 00:15:34.899 --> 00:15:37.500 Auburs. David Finley and John Ripley from the 00:15:37.500 --> 00:15:40.019 Blackwatch Royal Highlanders, Charles Sharp of 00:15:40.019 --> 00:15:42.379 the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment, and James Upton 00:15:42.379 --> 00:15:44.700 of the Sherwood Foresters. What's fascinating 00:15:44.700 --> 00:15:47.399 here is that despite that incredible courage, 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:50.240 despite the tunneling engineers under the earth, 00:15:50.460 --> 00:15:53.200 the air support flying overhead and the men earning 00:15:53.200 --> 00:15:55.620 Victoria crosses in the mud, the attack achieved 00:15:55.620 --> 00:15:58.299 absolutely nothing strategically. Nothing at 00:15:58.299 --> 00:16:02.240 all. Not a single inch of ground was won. And 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:04.059 as for the whole reason they attacked in the 00:16:04.059 --> 00:16:06.340 first place to support Joffrey and the French 00:16:06.340 --> 00:16:09.899 10th Army fighting 15 miles to the south, historians 00:16:09.899 --> 00:16:12.379 highly doubt the Battle of Auburs had even the 00:16:12.379 --> 00:16:14.299 slightest positive effect on that main French 00:16:14.299 --> 00:16:18.129 offensive. So what does this all mean? We have 00:16:18.129 --> 00:16:22.009 over 11 ,000 casualties for zero game. Usually 00:16:22.009 --> 00:16:24.389 a localized defeat like this stays a military 00:16:24.389 --> 00:16:26.889 matter buried in reports and official histories. 00:16:27.190 --> 00:16:29.610 Right. But this is the exact moment where the 00:16:29.610 --> 00:16:31.850 story jumps from the blood -soaked mud of France 00:16:31.850 --> 00:16:34.629 straight into the civilian halls of power in 00:16:34.629 --> 00:16:36.870 London. This is where the political shockwaves 00:16:36.870 --> 00:16:38.830 begin to tear through Britain. Shortly after 00:16:38.830 --> 00:16:41.370 the utter failure at Alvors Ridge, a war correspondent 00:16:41.370 --> 00:16:43.570 working for the Times newspaper named Colonel 00:16:43.570 --> 00:16:46.590 Charles Court -Reppington set a highly sensitive 00:16:46.590 --> 00:16:49.419 telegram back to London. And Reppington wasn't 00:16:49.419 --> 00:16:52.220 just observing from afar or guessing about what 00:16:52.220 --> 00:16:54.419 went wrong with the artillery. He was writing 00:16:54.419 --> 00:16:57.379 this dispatch using information supplied directly 00:16:57.379 --> 00:17:00.000 by the British commander himself, Sir John French. 00:17:00.169 --> 00:17:03.009 Which is wild to think about. Right. The commander 00:17:03.009 --> 00:17:06.549 of the entire military force is essentially bypassing 00:17:06.549 --> 00:17:09.009 his own government and leaking the root cause 00:17:09.009 --> 00:17:11.490 of his army's failure directly to a journalist. 00:17:11.869 --> 00:17:15.130 Exactly. And that specific leak leads to a headline 00:17:15.130 --> 00:17:19.230 in the Times on May 14th, 1915 that literally 00:17:19.230 --> 00:17:21.849 changed history. I'll quote it exactly as it 00:17:21.849 --> 00:17:24.529 appeared. Roll for it. Need for shells. British 00:17:24.529 --> 00:17:27.769 attacks checked. Limited supply the cause. A 00:17:27.769 --> 00:17:30.180 lesson from France. If we connect this to the 00:17:30.180 --> 00:17:32.900 bigger picture, you can begin to see how explosive 00:17:32.900 --> 00:17:35.079 this was for the British public. The highest 00:17:35.079 --> 00:17:37.640 level of the military is openly pointing the 00:17:37.640 --> 00:17:39.519 finger at the politicians and the factory owners 00:17:39.519 --> 00:17:42.500 back home. Broadcasting to the entire nation, 00:17:42.980 --> 00:17:44.900 your sons are dying in the mud because you aren't 00:17:44.900 --> 00:17:47.460 manufacturing the right equipment. This single 00:17:47.460 --> 00:17:50.440 article, sparked directly by the artillery failures 00:17:50.440 --> 00:17:53.539 at the Battle of Auburs, precipitated a massive 00:17:53.539 --> 00:17:56.599 national scandal that became known as the Shell 00:17:56.599 --> 00:18:00.460 Crisis of 1915. The public outrage was immediate 00:18:00.460 --> 00:18:03.000 and ferocious. People were reading over their 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:05.440 morning tea that their army was being slaughtered 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:07.920 because of faulty manufacturing and a lack of 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:10.799 ammunition. Yeah. It is incredible to trace the 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:14.160 line. A local tactical failure caused by bad 00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:16.740 shells and worn out gun barrels fundamentally 00:18:16.740 --> 00:18:18.819 rocked the British government. It really did. 00:18:19.019 --> 00:18:21.180 It brought down the ruling liberal government 00:18:21.180 --> 00:18:24.460 of Prime Minister H .H. Asquith and forced the 00:18:24.460 --> 00:18:26.779 immediate creation of a new coalition government. 00:18:26.890 --> 00:18:29.670 Just from this one battle. Yes. And to solve 00:18:29.670 --> 00:18:32.109 the problem, they had to create a brand new Ministry 00:18:32.109 --> 00:18:35.250 of Munitions headed by David Lloyd George. The 00:18:35.250 --> 00:18:37.869 failure to take a tiny elevated ridge in France 00:18:37.869 --> 00:18:40.829 literally reshaped how the entire British Empire 00:18:40.829 --> 00:18:43.369 ran its war economy. It perfectly illustrates 00:18:43.369 --> 00:18:46.190 the brutal reality of industrialized war. The 00:18:46.190 --> 00:18:48.269 frontline trenches and the civilian home front 00:18:48.269 --> 00:18:50.710 are inextricably linked. You really are. The 00:18:50.710 --> 00:18:53.230 soldiers can only fight with the tools the factories 00:18:53.230 --> 00:18:56.210 produce. When the factories fail to deliver quality 00:18:56.210 --> 00:18:58.970 ammunition, the soldiers die in staggering numbers. 00:18:59.069 --> 00:19:00.950 And when the public finds out, the governments 00:19:00.950 --> 00:19:03.569 fall. It is a really heavy realization. Just 00:19:03.569 --> 00:19:05.710 to recap the intense journey we've been on with 00:19:05.710 --> 00:19:07.910 you today. Yeah, we've covered a lot. We started 00:19:07.910 --> 00:19:11.009 with a high stakes multi -domain battle plan 00:19:11.009 --> 00:19:13.430 featuring subterranean tunneling engineers and 00:19:13.430 --> 00:19:15.670 some of the earliest military air support in 00:19:15.670 --> 00:19:18.630 history. Right. We explored a German defensive 00:19:18.630 --> 00:19:20.900 masterclass that turned the high water table 00:19:20.900 --> 00:19:23.799 into an excuse to build a fortress of 20 foot 00:19:23.799 --> 00:19:26.700 broad earthworks and interlocking machine gun 00:19:26.700 --> 00:19:29.579 fire. A literal underground city. We broke down 00:19:29.579 --> 00:19:32.619 the tragic compounding failures of British intelligence, 00:19:32.779 --> 00:19:35.799 logistics and faulty artillery that led to a 00:19:35.799 --> 00:19:38.960 horrifying 10 to one casualty ratio. Yeah. And 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:41.440 finally, we saw how that localized disaster at 00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:43.640 Auburs leaked into the civilian press and caused 00:19:43.640 --> 00:19:46.059 a political earthquake back in London, birthing 00:19:46.059 --> 00:19:49.180 the Shell crisis of 1915. It is a tremendous 00:19:48.970 --> 00:19:51.849 amount of historical gravity to take in, but 00:19:51.849 --> 00:19:54.910 it perfectly encapsulates the incredibly steep 00:19:54.910 --> 00:19:58.210 brutal learning curve that all armies faced in 00:19:58.210 --> 00:20:01.430 1915. Absolutely. They were applying 19th century 00:20:01.430 --> 00:20:04.950 tactics to 20th century killing machines and 00:20:04.950 --> 00:20:07.710 the cost was paid in human lives. It really was. 00:20:08.589 --> 00:20:10.670 And as we wrap up our time with you today we 00:20:10.670 --> 00:20:12.930 want to leave you with one final provocative 00:20:12.930 --> 00:20:16.089 thought. Okay. We have spent this entire deep 00:20:16.089 --> 00:20:18.450 dive focused intensely on the Battle of Auburs, 00:20:18.549 --> 00:20:21.170 where the British suffered those 11 ,000 plus 00:20:21.170 --> 00:20:23.150 casualties in a matter of days for absolutely 00:20:23.150 --> 00:20:25.750 no ground gained. Right. But remember how we 00:20:25.750 --> 00:20:28.109 set the stage at the very beginning. Auburs was 00:20:28.109 --> 00:20:30.809 just one small supporting piece of the broader 00:20:30.809 --> 00:20:33.250 Second Battle of Artois. It was essentially the 00:20:33.250 --> 00:20:35.410 opening act for the massive French offensive 00:20:35.410 --> 00:20:38.049 ordered by Joffre. Exactly. And according to 00:20:38.049 --> 00:20:40.369 the statistics provided by the official history 00:20:40.369 --> 00:20:43.150 editor Hans von Haften, the broader operations 00:20:43.150 --> 00:20:46.079 of that overarching second Battle d 'Artois resulted 00:20:46.079 --> 00:20:50.539 in roughly 102 ,500 French casualties, 32 ,000 00:20:50.539 --> 00:20:54.359 British casualties, and over 73 ,000 German casualties. 00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:56.960 This raises an important question. It certainly 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:00.339 does. We want you to consider the sheer, almost 00:21:00.339 --> 00:21:03.359 incomprehensible scale of this conflict as a 00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:06.619 whole. Yeah. If a quote unquote small piece of 00:21:06.619 --> 00:21:09.619 the puzzle like oberfabers, a localized battle 00:21:09.619 --> 00:21:12.500 that lasted just days and gained absolutely nothing, 00:21:12.460 --> 00:21:15.000 could cause a nationwide political crisis over 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:17.700 ammunition. Right. What does that staggering 00:21:17.700 --> 00:21:21.539 total of over 200 ,000 casualties across the 00:21:21.539 --> 00:21:23.859 whole Artois offensive tell us? What does that 00:21:23.859 --> 00:21:26.500 say about the terrifying new reality of industrial 00:21:26.500 --> 00:21:29.099 warfare that the world had just blindly entered 00:21:29.099 --> 00:21:32.359 into? It represents a scale of mass destruction 00:21:32.359 --> 00:21:35.420 and logistical consumption that neither the systems 00:21:35.420 --> 00:21:37.940 of government nor the human mind were truly equipped 00:21:37.940 --> 00:21:40.390 to process at the time. Something to ponder as 00:21:40.390 --> 00:21:42.130 you go about the rest of your day. We want to 00:21:42.130 --> 00:21:43.950 thank you so much for joining us on this deep 00:21:43.950 --> 00:21:45.990 dive. Thanks for listening. Keep questioning 00:21:45.990 --> 00:21:48.569 the history you think you know and keep exploring. 00:21:49.009 --> 00:21:49.910 We will catch you next time.